Fitch: No Need to Dumb Down MMA

Jon Fitch will lock horns with two-time NCAA national wrestling champion Johny Hendricks in a featured welterweight matchup at UFC 141 “Lesnar vs. Overeem” on Friday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Fitch, 33, has gone the distance in nine consecutive fights. Although some argue that mixed martial artists need to entertain the masses, Fitch, in a recent interview with Sherdog.com, examined the idea:

“A fight is a fight. We fight to find out who’s the best, whose the best style is. The whole point of UFC 1 was to find out what style was the most effective and whose is the best, and I think we’ve gotten away from just styles, you know, jiu-jitsu or boxing or whatever, and we’ve gotten into games, like what kind of game is dominant, who’s going to apply which types of pieces from each style in their game to make it dominant. And I think that’s exciting and fun to watch, and if people don’t think that’s exciting and fun to watch, then I don’t think they’re a fan of MMA. I think they’re a pro wrestling fan and I think they’re a kung fu movie fan, and that’s what they want to see. I think they want to see pro wrestling or kung fu movies, and I don’t think that we should dumb down the sport to make that small percentage of people happy. I don’t think it makes sense. I don’t like soccer, but I don’t go on forums all day and bitch and moan about how they don’t use their hands.”